1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for microlithographic imaging. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus and method for optimizing an illumination configuration according to the specific pattern being imaged.
2. Background of the Related Art
Optical lithography systems are in current use in the manufacture of integrated circuits and other fine featured products such as programmable gate arrays. In a most general description, a lithography apparatus includes an illumination system which provides a projection beam of radiation, a support structure which holds a patterning structure, a substrate table which holds a substrate, and a projection system (lens) for imaging the patterned beam onto a target portion of the substrate.
The term patterning structure should be broadly interpreted as referring to devices and structures that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of a substrate; the term “light valve” has also been used in this context. Generally, the pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device.
One example of such a device is a mask, which is generally held by a (movable) mask table. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the projection beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. The mask table ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming projection beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired.
Another example of such a device is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that (for example) addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the said undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind; in this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable surface. An alternative embodiment of a programmable mirror array employs a matrix arrangement of tiny mirrors, each of which can be individually tilted about an axis by applying a suitable localized electric field, or by employing piezoelectric actuation means. Once again, the mirrors are matrix-addressable, such that addressed mirrors will reflect an incoming radiation beam in a different direction to unaddressed mirrors; in this manner, the reflected beam is patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable mirrors. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronic means. In both of the situations described hereabove, the patterning structure can comprise one or more programmable mirror arrays. More information on mirror arrays as here referred to can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,891 and 5,523,193, and PCT patent applications WO 98/38597 and WO 98/33096, which are incorporated herein by reference. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the said support structure may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
Another example is a programmable LCD array, in which case the support structure can again be a frame or table, for example. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872, which is incorporated herein by reference.
For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask; however, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning structure as hereabove set forth.
The term projection system encompasses various types of projection systems. Though “lens” in a layperson's understanding usually connotes only refractive optics, herein this term is used broadly to include catoptric and catadioptric systems, for example. The illumination system may also include elements operating according to any of these principles for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam, and such elements may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a “lens”.
Additionally, the term “wafer table” may be used without implying that the substrate receiving the image is a silicon wafer, but may rather indicate a stage suited for support of any substrate to be processed by the lithography apparatus.
Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the patterning structure may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at once; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus—commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus—each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the “scanning” direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. Since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book “Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing”, Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4, incorporated herein by reference.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the “lens”; however, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a “lens”. Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such “multiple stage” devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Dual stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441 and WO 98/40791, incorporated herein by reference.
As illumination systems have evolved from producing conventional to annular, and on to quadrupole and more complicated illumination configurations, the control parameters have concurrently become more numerous. In a conventional illumination pattern, a circular area including the optical axis is illuminated, the only adjustment to the pattern being to alter the outer radius (σr). Annular illumination requires the definition of an inner radius (σc) in order to define the illuminated ring. For multipole patterns, the number of parameters which can be controlled continues to increase. For example in a quadrupole illumination configuration, in addition to the two radii, a pole angle α defines the angle subtended by each pole between the selected inner and outer radii.
Concurrently, mask technology has been evolving as well. Binary intensity masks have given way to phase-shifted masks and other advanced designs. While a binary mask simply transmits, reflects or blocks imaging radiation at a given point, a phase-shifted mask may attenuate some radiation or it may transmit or reflect the light after imparting a phase shift, or both. Phase-shifted masks have been used in order to image features which are on the order of the imaging radiation's wavelength or smaller, since diffraction effects at these resolutions can cause poor contrast and end-of-line errors, among other problems.
The various types of illumination configurations can be used to provide improvements in resolution, depth of focus, contrast and other characteristics of the printed image. However, each illumination type has certain tradeoffs. For example, improved contrast may come at the expense of depth of focus; each type of mask has a performance which is dependent on the pattern to be imaged as well.
Conventionally, in order to select the optimum illumination mode for a given pattern to be imaged onto a wafer, a series of test wafers has been exposed and compared on a hit-or-miss basis. As noted above, modern illumination systems have ever increasing numbers of variables which can be manipulated. As the various permutations of variable settings increase, the cost of trial and error optimization of illumination configurations becomes very large and quantitative methods of selecting illumination configurations are needed.